Photo ~ The Rev. David Cooper conducts Mass during the inaugural assembly of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, a new independent alliance of diocesan and religious order priests who want to preserve the "spirit of Vatican II," at Saint Leo University.

New priests' group hopes to preserve vision of Vatican II

This week, about 240 priests from around the country are meeting at Saint Leo University in St. Leo for the inaugural assembly of the newly formed Association of U.S. Catholic Priests. Among its goals: To be a "voice of hope" and to "celebrate and implement the visionary concepts of Vatican Council II."

The Rev. David Cooper, a Milwaukee pastor and board chairman, says keeping the spirit of what was intended by the council — which opened in October 1962 and concluded in December 1965 — is urgent, given the direction the church seems to be taking.

When the organizing committee first met in August near Chicago, it recorded 27 members. It has since grown to 640, Cooper says. With about 40,000 priests in the United States, he says the association needs at least 10 percent participation to be viable — about 4,000 members.

With Vatican II at the half-century mark, the association will concentrate on examining each of the documents released by the council and how the changes have fared.

The first will be the liturgy, which recently went through some revisions in November when the Vatican instituted a new translation of the Roman Missal. It was the first major change in the Mass ritual since the early 1970s.

Reaction to the changes — which included different English-language responses meant to conform more closely to the Latin text in a dozen sections of the Mass — has been more tepid than enthusiastic. Critics have called the wording "old-school" and cumbersome, while supporters like the traditional aspects.

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